LAKE CHARLES, La. – A Louisiana state trooper was shot in the head and critically injured Sunday afternoon during a struggle with a man whose pickup truck had run into a ditch after being reported as driving erratically, Louisiana State Police said.
Other drivers stopped to help Master Trooper Steven Vincent, a 13-year state police veteran in southwest Louisiana and member of a law enforcement family, said Col. Michael Edmonson, head of state police.
“Thank God for several civilians who pulled over,” he said in a telephone interview. “They jumped out, they subdued him, grabbed the trooper’s handcuffs and put them on the suspect. And they rendered first aid” to Vincent, 43.
Edmonson said the arrested man, Kevin Daigle, 54, of Lake Charles, had a number of previous arrests, though he did not know details. He said he did not know all the charges that Daigle will face, but they will include attempted murder of a police officer.
Sgt. James Anderson, southwest Louisiana spokesman for state police, said Vincent was in critical but stable condition Sunday evening, and Daigle also was in a hospital.